Day one of the Red Hat Summit did not disappoint, as the company announced deepening its partnership with Microsoft; jointly working with one another to manage public OpenShift services running on Azure.
Through the deal customers will be able to reap the benefits of both Red Hat Enterprise Linux-based and Windows-based containers running alongside each other, with both vendors supporting customers; as Microsoft handles the cloud aspect and Red Hat operating the Kubernetes container side.
“Microsoft and Red Hat are aligned in our vision to deliver simplicity, choice and flexibility to enterprise developers building cloud-native applications,” Scott Guthrie, Executive VP of Cloud and Enterprise Group at Microsoft said. “Today, we’re combining both companies’ leadership in Kubernetes, hybrid cloud and enterprise operating systems to simplify the complex process of container management, with an industry-first solution on Azure.”
The joint solution offers organisations the ability to manage applications across both public cloud and on-premises; designed to reduce the complexity of container management.
As well as being a fully managed service for customers, the joint offering will enable developers much more flexibility; allowing free movement of applications between on-premise and Azure using OpenShift, offering a consistent platform across hybrid cloud, in addition to working with Microsoft’s Azure Stack private cloud.
“By extending our partnership with Microsoft, we’re able to offer the industry’s most comprehensive Kubernetes platform on a leading public cloud, providing the ability for customers to more easily harness innovation across the hybrid cloud without sacrificing production stability.” Paul Cormier, President of Products and Technologies at Red Hat, said.
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Customer of both vendors will be able to leverage the combination of services to work efficiently across various platforms; shifting from container-based applications with Red Hat over to Azure without hindering innovation or making massive changes to the process.
“Very few organizations are able to fully silo their IT operations into a solely on-premises or public cloud footprint; instead, it’s a hybrid mixture of these environments that presents a path towards digital transformation,” Cormier said.
Red Hat and Microsoft’s extended partnership will also bring new ways for organisations to leverage data across the platforms, with further integration of Microsoft SQL Server across the Red Hat OpenShift platform; also soon to include SQL Server as a certified
Microsoft reaps more benefits from the partnership as the joint offering enables customers to leverage data across the platforms, with further integration and extended support of Microsoft SQL Server on Red Hat Open Shift containers; in addition to Azure Cosmos DB, Machine Learning and SQL DB gaining additional support from OpenShift.
“The integration of CoreOS’ automation capabilities with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform gives organizations a single, enterprise-grade Kubernetes platform that spans the hybrid cloud, limiting complexity without hindering innovation,” Ashesh Badani, vice president and general manager, OpenShift, Red Hat said. “From an immutable container host to a common method of building the services actually running on Kubernetes, OpenShift provides the key automation and management capabilities to make it easier for enterprise to embrace hybrid IT. ”
The rollout of the offerings will be done in two phases; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Azure and Azure Stack are currently available. Red Hat OpenShift on Azure will be made available in the coming months.
